SALON

Friday, Jan 11, 2013 4:09 PM UTC

Is Beyoncé a plagiarist?

She claims she wrote Destiny's Child's songs. This isn't her first time stealing credit

By

Topics: Beyonce, pop music, GQ, entertainment news, Destiny's child, Plagiarism,

Is Beyoncé a plagiarist? (Credit: AP/Charles Sykes)

In the new GQ, pegged to Beyoncé’s forthcoming album, Super Bowl performance, and the nonstop publicity blitz that is her life, the new mom opened up about her omnipotence (“I’m more powerful than my mind can even digest and understand”). She says her will to power started early, when she was in the off-and-on girl group Destiny’s Child: “You know, when I was writing the Destiny’s Child songs, it was a big thing to be that young and taking control. And the label at the time didn’t know that we were going to be that successful, so they gave us all control.”

When Beyoncé “was writing” Destiny’s Child songs, she did so with help: There is not a single song on any of the group’s four albums that Beyoncé wrote herself. She, more and more as the group’s run went on, was involved in writing, but a more typical Destiny’s Child song was their single “Lose My Breath,” with seven credited writers. On the group’s final album, several songs were credited to all three singers in the group. And songwriting credits are often arbitrary — Beyoncé was disqualified before three much less notable writers from an Academy Award nomination for the “Dreamgirls” song “Listen,” which she co-wrote.

Though Beyoncé’s GQ statement isn’t strictly untrue — she elided the “co-” in “co-writing” — it does call to mind her history of petty larceny, real or alleged. In 2011, Beyoncé performed a widely acclaimed dance number at the Billboard Music Awards that some viewers noted seemed to rip off the work of Italian dancer Lorella Cuccarini. “My makeup artist showed me the performance of Lorella Cuccarini a year ago, and it inspired me so much,” Beyoncé said later. Later that year, Beyoncé was again accused of plagiarism for her “Countdown” video. “Beyoncé is not the worst copycat, she sings and dances very well, and she has good taste,” said Dutch choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker.

Admittedly, the singer is an easy target for plagiarism allegations due to her fame. But her fame also allows her to rephrase these allegations as curation, and to talk louder about the singular songwriting power of her mind even as it seems she’s fairly well-versed in the typical “write a word, take a third” strategy.

The singer received a writing credit on her song “Smash Into You,” a repurposed cover of a lesser-known singer’s “Smack Into You,” with little changed but two letters. For changing those two letters, Beyoncé got a larger share of the profits from the song; “Smash Into You” was made the theme song for her movie “Obsessed.” While her recent suggestion that she wrote Destiny’s Child’s music may bend the truth, the idea that she’s more powerful than her mind can understand is outright absurd, flying in the face of proof she knows precisely how powerful she is.

Daniel D'Addario is a staff reporter for Salon's entertainment section. Follow him on Twitter @DPD_ More Daniel D'Addario.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 6 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations